I am right now watching Dominick Dunne's show on Court TV. Tonight he is a featuring a murder story from Nashville--the March case. Perry March was a lawyer here who was charged with killing his wife. Those of us in Nashville were captivated by this story for years.
Perry met his wife Janet in college in Chicago and then moved back to Nashville, where Janet's father put him through Vanderbilt Law School. He was hired by one of the best law firms in the town. All was well, until he sexually harrassed someone at the firm and had to leave. That kind of started the downward trend. Then he went to work at his father-in-law's firm. One night he said Janet just up and left their beautiful home in Forest Hills. Said she was going on vacation for a couple of weeks. But they had two small children, and Janet's friends said she would never just leave like that. She never came back home. She was reported missing and things were never the same.
Fast forward. There was no sign of Janet, and the city of Nashville turned on Perry and for good reason. He just acted guilty and was arrogant to boot. People speculated that maybe they had an argument, Perry killed her, and then had to dispose of the body. No body was ever found, but Perry was found guilty of her murder in a civil suit.
March moves to Mexico to be near his father and remarries. March tries to get his in-laws killed because they keep interfering with his child custody and such. (how stupid!) They ask a Tennessee criminal to kill the in-laws and the criminal pretends to do so, but of course doesn't. Police close in on March's father, and the father admits he helped Perry hide Janet's body. But still no real evidence. (and to boot, Perry was also found guilty of embezzling money from his father-in-law's law firm.)
End of story: March's father admitted to disposing of the body and was sentenced to prison for five years and dies shortly afterward. March was found guilty of second degree murder, abuse of a corpse and of tampering with evidence. He was sentenced to 56 years. And to think that March's father was a pharmacist and March a lawyer. Both with good careers. To think how low they sunk.
I am feverishly studying for the MPRE test, which I will take on Friday. I am pretty sure that the law examiners would consider that Perry March had that badge of dishonor: moral turpitude.
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